Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-20
LET WELL ENOUGH BE.
VIII the Twentieth Legislature Do
Aught to Check the Rapid De.
yeiOpment OF Texas!
WIN Anything be Done to Scare Away the
Capital or Labor Now Pouring Across
Our Borders.
Mckinney Mercury.

true according to circumstances: They
are oftenest odious to those who attack
the established order of business or
growth, and would recklessly assume the
robe of reformer, so-cahed. Then it is
that illustration or comparison facing
them with the ice-cUld facts of progress
and prosperity elsewhere, in the good old
way, COnfOunds them, and becomes truly
"odious." For the benefit of class of
reckless demagogGes or speculative poll
ticians in this state, always noisy, but
never trusted with office, whe are found
knocking at the door of every legislature,
with their isms and repressive reforms,
attention is called to comparative pre-
sentatlOn of the recent history of Georgia
and Texas in the matter particularly Of
railroad building and its results.
No Southern ststes have grown within
the past decade as have the Empire and
Lone Star states of the South. No other
Southern states can be compared with
them either in present business or de-
velOpment or in possibilities and promise
of future prosperity. In Georaia, the
multiplication of factories, the extension
of railroads bulldog and connections, and
the growth of towns, mas been so won
derful as to attract the nations attention.
In Texas, the increase in population and
material values, the rapid completion of
new iron links by the thousands, opening
the dessert to civilization, reducing dis
tances, and creating a powerful South
western empire within the border of the
once wild and unknown territory between
Louisiana and the Rio Grande, only fails
to be read as a fairy tale because
so familiar to every intelligent person of
the age. The fact in the case of both
states is indisputable. The cause is
equally apparent. Railroads have made
Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus and
Augusta, and these prosperous and
bounding communities have sown the
spirit of a new life broadcast in Georgia
Her roads have been Georgia's pets. The
Western and Atlantic, owned and operated
by the state, is magnificent property,
making that splendid example OF the New
South q railroad operator rather than a
railroad hater or oppressOr. The two
most distinguished men in Georgia, Senq-
tor Brown and the present governor,
Gordon, are likewise pets of the people
and railroad kings To be railroad
manager dOOms a man among certain
classes of narrow minded people In
Georgia it is a badge of distinction. The
men who are selected as a commission to
manage the state road, and give such at
tenJion to railway matters in the state as
are deemed necessary, are not deCayed
politicians or oily demagogues; they are
experienced business and railway mag
nateS-men who know something of the
perpleXing intricacies of the problems
and under this friendly dispos ton to
railways and railway men, the roads have
multiplied in Georgia, the state has grown
in popula ion and foreign capital, and
shaking the dust of ante-bellum back
wardneSS from It's feet, has started in the
long race for Southern supremacy with
the confidence, the speed and the en-
durapce of young giant.
This example is specially commended
to Texas, the only state in the Southern
sisterhood challenging Georgia in the
great race. In fact, Texas should need
no outside example, however. Has she
not seen the hamlet at the awakening call
of the locomotive transformed, as if by
magic, into the city of magnificent pro-
portions? Has not the desert bloomed
as the rose in the wake of the iron girdle,
and values and taxation doubled and
quadrupled, as if another Aladdin we're
invoking prosperity and riches for the
citizen and state alike? Think of the ag-
gregate wealth of Texas increasing over
$500, 900, 900 in the incredibly short pc
riod of six years. What would the tax
able values of Texas aggre gate now with
out the rapid extension of the magnifi-
cent railway system throughout the state
during the past decade? Where would
the commonwealth most populous and
prosperous tOwns-Dallas, Fort Worth,
Waco, Denison, Houston, San Antonio,
and others, be now, had an u friendly
and repressive spirit been dominant in
Texas politics and legislation affecting
railways for the ten or twelve years Just
past?
In word, both Georgia and Texas
have been incidentally benefited, if not
literally made, by railways since the war,
and the unprecedented activity in rail
way building witnessed in both, has been
due to the progressive, liberal, friendly
spirit of the citizens of these states.
These are self-evident facts, addressed to
reasonable, intelligent and thinking peo-
pie. The attention, particularly of
would be reformers, is called to this COM
parative view OF recent history.
But the end is not yet; indeed the good
WOrh mas merely Deen Oegun IN Texas.
Think of the millions of acres yet lying,
comparatively speaking, beyond the lin
its of civilization, the hundreds of
towns yet beyond the reach of the iron
horse, the hundreds of communi-
ties only waiting for direct and speedy
communication with each other and the
outside world, to spring into notice and
prosperity. Nor has the spirit of the peo-
pie changed. Everywhere is yet manifest
that generous and long-sighted policy
which would bring the roads to them,
even by prinCely donations and bonuses.
There is scarcely community in Texas
to-day but is standing with money con-
tribution in its open hand as an induce
ment for any line whatever of road to
enter its borders. Does this look like 8
spirit of enmity? Can demagogues be so
blind as to see spirit of unfriendliuess
in this attitude?
1t is this disposition that pleases and
attracts capital. So long as it is mani
fest, railroads will continue to be built in
Texas, trades to prosper, communities
to grow, and the state reap golden har-
vest in the returns of Quadrupled values
and rich revenues. But the reverse of
the proposition is equally indisputabIe.
Capital is wary, and it is revengeful.
ANY exhibition of unfriendliness, of 9
disposition to be oppressive, to assume